Pressures facing the NHS: support statements management information
Management information and published statistics used to support First Ministers statement on Pressures facing the NHS.
On 9 January, the First Minister made a public statement on Pressures facing the NHS following a meeting of the Scottish Government resilience committee (SGoRR). There was a subsequent update in the statement on 16 January to provide an update on pressures facing the NHS.Some of the data used in the statements was management information which is provided for operational purposes and is used to inform the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR) when it is active. Below is a summary of the management information used under these circumstances alongside sources for published statistics, and notes on interpreting these figures.
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Indicator |
Source |
Notes |
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People with Covid |
This is published weekly and is based on a national survey and estimates the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 to track infection levels in the community. |
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People with Covid admitted to hospital |
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This is published weekly and is based on data from RAPID (Rapid and Preliminary Inpatient Data) submitted by Health Boards to Public Health Scotland. It provides a measure of the number of people admitted to hospital with COVID-19, based on PCR confirmed community-acquired infections admitted as an emergency to medical specialties (excluding admission types specifying an injury-related admission).
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Patients with Covid in hospital |
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This is published weekly and is based on data provided by Health Boards to Public Health Scotland and provides a measure of the number of patients in hospital with recently confirmed COVID-19.
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Operations performed as planned |
This is published monthly and is based on data submitted to Public Health Scotland from NHS Board Theatre systems, This provides a measure of the number of scheduled elective operations in theatre systems that were not cancelled on the day or working day prior to scheduled operation. |
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Patients admitted to hospital with flu |
This is published weekly and is based on data from RAPID. This provides a measure of the number of patients admitted to hospital with recently confirmed influenza.
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Number of calls answered by NHS24 |
Unpublished management information |
This is a measure of call demand. Call demand is the number of calls answered by NHS24 as well as the number of calls to NHS 24 that were abandoned after a threshold (5 minutes). This has historically been used as the volume indicator for calls coming through the service for management purposes. |
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A&E waiting times |
Weekly emergency department activity and waiting time statistics
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This is published weekly and monthly by Public Health Scotland. This provides an update of key statistics on attendances at Accident and Emergency (A&E) services across Scotland. |
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Emergency incidents responded to by Scottish ambulance service |
This is published on weekly basis and provides a measure of emergency unscheduled care incidents handled by SAS including attended and non-attended incidents. |
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Patients seen by the Ambulance service who were discharged or treated without needing to go to hospital |
Unscheduled Care Operational Statistics
Pre-pandemic levels are unpublished management information |
This is published weekly and provides a measure of total incidents conveyed to hospital as a percentage of total incidents dealt with by SAS.
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Hospital bed occupancy |
Unpublished management information |
This is based on data provided by Health Boards directly to Scottish Government and is not comparable to quarterly and annual statistics published by Public Health Scotland which include a wider list of specialties. NHS Boards provide data on occupancy that is being used for operational management in the local systems. The bed base in the management information is around 86% of the acute bed base reported in official statistics when comparing January-June 2022. |
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People leaving hospital when they should |
Unpublished management information |
This definition is the percentage of people who were discharged not in delay and is based on data provided by NHS Boards directly to Scottish Government. It is not directly comparable to monthly statistics published by Public Health Scotland. Not all NHS Boards submit this information.
The data provided by NHS Boards gives an updated picture of people leaving hospital as part of their planned date of discharge. |
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People in hospital who don’t need to be there |
Monthly PHS statistics on delayed discharge (see here)
Unpublished management information (see below) |
The Public Health Scotland monthly statistics are the official source of delayed discharge information and data are provided to PHS from NHS Boards. The data is quality checked, verified and meet the standards of a National Statistics publication.
Please see below for more details on how management information is used between these publications. |
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Care beds on an interim basis |
Unpublished management information |
This is based on a report provided to the Scottish Government by Health and Social Care Scotland, which provided an overview of the current use of interim care beds across Scotland.
HSCS undertook a short survey of all partnerships to assess how many partnerships were currently accessing Interim Care Home beds and what scope there might be for further expansion. At the time of the survey a total of 621 interim beds were in use or were available for use. |
Delayed discharges
In the statement of 9 January 2023 the First Minister noted that there had been a slight reduction in delayed discharges in the most recent weeks, there are, however, more than 1,700 people currently in hospital who don’t need to be there.
The figure of 1,700 referenced in that statement is derived from unpublished management information provided from local authorities, directly to Scottish Government each day, to aid monitoring of the interim operational situation. To confirm this is a different data source to the published monthly data. This data is not subject to revisions or verification and is therefore not comparable to monthly statistics published by Public Health Scotland which undergo further quality assurance.
The following chart shows the differences between the published PHS monthly delayed discharges data and the management information referenced in the First Minister’s statement. In recent weeks the management information indicates a fall from 1,845 on 24/11/2022 to 1,761 on 05/01/2023.
Source:
PHS National Statistics: Delayed discharges in NHSScotland monthly (census point is as at last Thursday of the month).
MI: Management Information submitted to SG by Local Authorities. Data points on the chart are taken as at Thursday each week.
The census points may not sit exactly on the dates visible of the axis. However, only the census points were used in the graph.
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